GAZETI LA THE CITIZENS

Tanzania is willing to host an international court to try Kenyan politicians Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto, who face charges of crimes against humanity in the 2008 post-election violence.

The two politicians and two others have been charged at the International Criminal Court (ICC) based at The Hague but there has been talk of shifting the cases to the Arusha-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), whose mandate ends soon. Attorney General Frederick Werema told The Citizen that Tanzania “would be honoured” to host the cases of the Kenyan Deputy Prime Minister Kenyatta and Eldoret North MP Ruto, who are both running in next month’s General Election.They are jointly charged with the country’s former public service head Francis Muthaura and radio presenter Joshua arap Sang. The suspects have denied charges of masterminding the violence that left 1,333 people dead. Hundreds of thousands others were displaced.A senior ICTR official told reporters in Arusha this week that the international court was prepared to handle cases of the four Kenyans but the UN and the Tanzanian government must give it the go-ahead.

Mr Danford Mpumilwa, ICTR public relations officer, said the court cannot handle the cases unless the UN and the government of Tanzania give it the green light. “The ICTR was established by the UN Security Council to prosecute persons responsible for genocide and other violations of international humanitarian law committed in Rwanda,” he said. If the ICC wants the ICTR to prosecute Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto, it must put a request to Tanzania and the UN to allow such cases to be tried by the ICTR.

ICTR has state-of-the-art facilities to manage such a trial but there are procedures to be followed that are best handled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.But Attorney-General Werema said the Tanzanian government had not received formal requests, either from the suspects or from The Hague, to have the cases transferred to Arusha. “We are aware that international law provides for shifting of cases such as those facing Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto and others from one international court to another, but it is The Hague that must initiate the process and not the suspects.”

Mr Ruto’s lawyers have reportedly applied to have the cases moved from The Hague to Arusha on the grounds that it would enable their client to fully participate in Kenya’s presidential campaigns as the country inches towards the March 4 General Election.

The ICC is believed to be willing to allow the ICTR to prosecute the two Kenyan politicians.
Mr Werema said The Hague was probably trying to establish whether the ICTR meets its basic conditions before it allows the move. Some of the things the ICC would be looking at include whether the ICTR is technically capable of handling the cases, the costs and whether there is enough security for both the suspects and the staff.

He added, however, that he believes the ICTR meets those conditions and “it will be a great honour for Tanzania to handle the cases. In fact, if I received the request from The Hague today I would expedite it and convince my colleagues to accept the request.”